Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

Mike Young

Well-Known Member
Question for eletrician super-genious. I have a 1500 watt heater that I only use at about 1/4 power. Can I plug it into a 1000 watt timer, provided I keep it under 75%?

Thanks!
 

suave.sam

Active Member
Got home this evening to find the electricity off! The emergency services guy traced the problem to a socket in the room with the stealth grow.

The lights are now back on, but half of the sockets in the house are still not working.

I have a 65w and two 23w cfl's wired to one socket, and a couple of pc fans wired to another. However its been running apparently fine for 3 weeks now. Could this be the root of the problem?

Any assistance for a 1st time grower would be much appreciated.
(in the UK).

Cheers
 

jackdaknife

Active Member
Got home this evening to find the electricity off! The emergency services guy traced the problem to a socket in the room with the stealth grow.

The lights are now back on, but half of the sockets in the house are still not working.

I have a 65w and two 23w cfl's wired to one socket, and a couple of pc fans wired to another. However its been running apparently fine for 3 weeks now. Could this be the root of the problem?

Any assistance for a 1st time grower would be much appreciated.
(in the UK).

Cheers
Usually in a domestic dwell, there is a ring circuit for each story, each containing 10 sockets (not including spurs). It could be a number of things, and i'm suprised the emergency electrician didn't repair it. Anything else he said? For an average 13amp ring circuit you can load around a maximum of 2990watts. Clearly a 120w max grow isn't going to overload it, what else do you have on the circuit? First rule of thumb, check your breakers. If you have rewireable fuses then you may need to put new fuse wire in, but first find out what is overloading it if that is the problem.

MCB/Breaker:

View attachment 1414115

Rewireable fuse:

View attachment 1414116

If he is naming a socket as faulty, then really I would suggest you get someone qualified in. IF you insist on doing the job yourself, then I can only explain the guildlines. Making sure the socket/ring/radial circuit is dead, unscrew the socket and inspect it for any damage. If it doesn't look in bad order then I STRONGLY suggest you get someone in to fix as it could be a fault in the cable running from your distrabution board to the socket and repairing it yourself could put you in danger as you may not do it right, and an electrical fire is all you need lol. You'll get the whole street baked!

Hope this helps.
 

jackdaknife

Active Member
Question for eletrician super-genious. I have a 1500 watt heater that I only use at about 1/4 power. Can I plug it into a 1000 watt timer, provided I keep it under 75%?

Thanks!
Its a stupid thing to do, like really stupid. You're creating unnecessary risk but if you want to do it then yes you can, PROVIDED you have protection on the circuit from an overload and you make sure you're correct on how much power is on the load.
 

jackdaknife

Active Member
Hey , im putting together a grow box and im using 3 pc fans for ventilation, i wired them to a 12v adapter but I find they are way too loud. Is there a way i can wire a switch to adjust the speed of the fans?

Yes you could actually, although I don't know if it would create problems for the 12v adapter, but I would try it, its only 12v pc fan. Go to maplins or any electronic (not electrical) store and find a cheap switch. Wire the live through the switch and connect the neutrals together via soldiering or electrical tape.
 

joshfoxx

Member
hey brickton i have a question.. i have a single detached garage with a electrical plug.. was wondering how many amps or lights i can get in there or how to determine how much electricity i can use without tripping the breaker, its FREE electric for me.. and we used to hang out in there with my big screen and portable ac unit and other things plugged in and sometimes it would trip
[email protected]-
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Yes you could actually, although I don't know if it would create problems for the 12v adapter, but I would try it, its only 12v pc fan. Go to maplins or any electronic (not electrical) store and find a cheap switch. Wire the live through the switch and connect the neutrals together via soldiering or electrical tape.
epic fail.
 

gnosh

Active Member
I am currently redoing my garage into a grow room and have found that my 15 amp circuit breaker cant hold up to two 1k lights... Logic would then inform me "DUH"! That being said I am below novice level on electrical knowledge so I ask the experienced people out there, If I don't want to have to do this again in the future what size of breaker do I need to install to run an entire grow room with no worries of flipping a breaker?
will be at least 4 1k lights, only two at the moment
 

gnosh

Active Member
u need a subpanel and/or lighting contactor to switch 4k watts.....

its alot more than just a breaker ;)
Subpanel...that doesnt sound cheap....or easy...
I have 12 breaker spots open on the current panel is it possible to make the sub panel on that? I need to find a friend/family member that knows this shit lol
 
I had a question I was hoping smeone could help me with. I have a small breaker panel with a 100 amp main breaker. With the existing power already at the site of the future grow room i should i only need 2, maybe 3 at the most, 15 or 20 amp circuits. Do i need to have someone come out and change the panel over to a larger one with a bigger main breaker or can i have some sort of sub panel installed for the 2 or 3 circuits i need?
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
I had a question I was hoping smeone could help me with. I have a small breaker panel with a 100 amp main breaker. With the existing power already at the site of the future grow room i should i only need 2, maybe 3 at the most, 15 or 20 amp circuits. Do i need to have someone come out and change the panel over to a larger one with a bigger main breaker or can i have some sort of sub panel installed for the 2 or 3 circuits i need?
If thats all the power you need then you will be fine with the 100 amp panel. Dont forget to count for the whole house an not just the grow room though. Add everything in the house up and dont go over 80 amps and you should be fine. If you heat water and the house with electricity then you might be close but if not then i am guessing you are not gonna need to change anything.
If you need help adding things up just ask.....

soil :bigjoint:
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Subpanel...that doesnt sound cheap....or easy...
I have 12 breaker spots open on the current panel is it possible to make the sub panel on that? I need to find a friend/family member that knows this shit lol
how big is the main breaker in your current panel ? If 200 or more then you could run a 100 amp sub panel off of that and that would be good for 4k and all the fans, ect....
you dont have to use a sub panel but it would make things a lot easier on your self or the electrician doing the work. you could just run one single 15 amp circuit to each light and that would be alright too. (a 1k light is around 8.5 amps with a standard 110v outlet, an you can use 80% of the breaker to be safe , so running 12 amps would be ok on a 15 amp circuit.) there are several ways you could go about it though.

sorry if i didnt make sense ... i tried though ;-)



soil :bigjoint:
 
Can you get busted if your using a HIGHLY noticeable amount of electricity? If so, can you give me some advice on what you would call "pushing it"? thank you.
 

Plebscrubber

Active Member
Im running 2 x 400W HID lights, 1x 130W CFL, a 90W centrifugal fan, 2 x 39W inline fans, 2 x small oscilatting fans, 1 x large oscilatting fan, 2 x water pumps, 2 x air pumps

all from 1 x power outlet... is this ok?

the wiring is pretty old... but the breaker never gets activated...

I have 2 x 15amp circuits for my house outlets, the grow room power outlet is on one of them, as well as half the power outlets in my house.

I was under the impression that it dosnt matter if you spread the load over many outlets or just one because they share the same circuit and breaker
 

MsBotwin

Active Member
My Hubby just ran Seperate electric to my grow closet. It's on a 15 amp circuit.
I am planning to switch from CFLs to a 400 Watt HPS and run a Veg. Area with 334 Actual Watts of CFLs. In Addition, I have a humidifier running 24/7, ditto a ceramic area heater, I am sure once I have the HPS I'll only need the heater during dark periods. I have 2 HydroFarm Emily's gardens, 1 for each area. Also an exhaust fan and an intake fan. Can a 15 amp circuit handle all of that?
Oh, yeah I'll have 1 outlet in my Veg area and 2 in my Flower area. One just for the HPS. Thanks for any advice you can give me!
EDIT: total power to the house is 200 amps, if that matters.
 

gnosh

Active Member
how big is the main breaker in your current panel ? If 200 or more then you could run a 100 amp sub panel off of that and that would be good for 4k and all the fans, ect....
you dont have to use a sub panel but it would make things a lot easier on your self or the electrician doing the work. you could just run one single 15 amp circuit to each light and that would be alright too. (a 1k light is around 8.5 amps with a standard 110v outlet, an you can use 80% of the breaker to be safe , so running 12 amps would be ok on a 15 amp circuit.) there are several ways you could go about it though.

sorry if i didnt make sense ... i tried though ;-)



soil :bigjoint:
Thank you very much.
After the research I did you filled in the missing spots great.
It is a 200 amp main breaker. If I put in a 100 amp sub panel what size breakers should I use for the lights in the sub panel and should I put each light on its own breaker?
Thank you again
 
I got an Electrical question so i have a 240v lumatek ballast and want to USE it but all my sockets in the garage where the grow room is are 120v how can i overcome this problem? I would like to get a lighting controller that has multiple 240v and 120v sockets but wouldnt know where and how to install it...hope you can help!
 

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
I got an Electrical question so i have a 240v lumatek ballast and want to USE it but all my sockets in the garage where the grow room is are 120v how can i overcome this problem? I would like to get a lighting controller that has multiple 240v and 120v sockets but wouldn't know where and how to install it...hope you can help!
You need a 240v line from the Main Panel. So you need space in the panel for the new breaker for the line. How many A.'s is the Main? Usually 100A, or 150A or maybe 200A. How full is it? Pic if you could would help. Someone on here might be able to line you out to DIY but it's not simple.
Sounds like a job for a pro. You could say you want a 240v in the garage for a welder.. They use high loads. Are you in a Med. state? If the garage is full of plants maybe not as easy too. Hope that helps.
Daniels:eyesmoke:
 
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